The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) has issued a notice of allowance for patent application No. 2,857,574, pertaining to “Processes for Treating Red Mud”. The Orbite process claims to be able to utilize red mud as a feedstock, extracting all of the valuable constituents, including rare earths and rare metals, alumina, magnesium oxide and titanium dioxide, while only returning a small fraction of inert material (Editors’ note: there is a content of radioactive elements that needs to be safely managed). You can find the press release here.